Finally, from a Christian point of view, the real concern is not with sins anyway. What are sins, specific acts of hate, or lust, or despair, or cynicism other than manifestations of something deeper, something in the core of a man's being which is the central problem. The Christian faith chooses to use the phrase "original sin" to describe that human condition which is the breeding ground of the world's misery and personal suffering. The Christian community has affirmed that it is possible to do something about the human situation that man is not hopeless. It is possible for a man to change and be changed; it is possible for a man to find grace and forgiveness, to admit honestly that he is what he is. Both things are possible because of the love of Jesus Christ, which is honest and selfgiving.

Because of his life in this community, the practicing Christian homosexual is able to admit to himself and to others that he sins. He is aware that he sins in everything he does. He sins when he buys a product from 2 company that discriminates against Negroes and fosters injustice. He sins when he leaves food on his plate, in a world where many children are going to bed hungry. He sins with every breath, because he is a sinful human being, one who knows that by his own strength and effort it is impossible to escape from the human condition. Yet he is not without hope. Like St. Paul he knows himself to be a carnal human being, whose fleshly desires often dominate yet he also knows that one's personal sexual sins are very insignificant, compared to the tremendous sins of men who rape the earth, sowing seeds of exploitation, injustice, hate. Indeed. the battle of human survival would have been lost long ago, if mankind had imprisoned all who have indulged in homosexual acts. How much of the world's beauty, literature, religion

have been dependent upon men with this "thorn in the flesh." The Church itself has always known this. It has long tolerated communities of monks where homosexuality was rife, and organizations like the Knights Templars with homosexual initiation rites. Indeed, at certain points of church history, high ranking ecclesiastical figures have given tacit, if not formal, approval to homosexual acts in certain situations. This has been justified, along with a certain amount of self-indulgent drinking, gambling. etc., as tolerating humanity in order to get on with the more essential task. The central task is extending love and hope to all men, pointing to the power from which it is possible to expect evil, cruelty and injustice to be defeated.

Homosexuals have more to gain than lose from devoting themselves to such a cause. For the Christian community is not a group of righteous persons who condemn sinners, but is made up of persons who know they are sinners and need the grace of God for their health and sanity. As the world becomes more Christian, it will become open and honest about deviations of various kinds, it will seek to sustain and help members of all minority groups find fulfilment. It will always condemn persons who seek to damage, destroy and misuse others but it will also try to help them. It will nurture and extend selfgiving love, the strong bearing the failings of the weak.

To sum up, homosexual acts are sinful, in the Christian view-but not as seriously sinful as other kinds of daily acts of everyone else. Sex without love is always sinful, and one can hardly call himself Christian unless he loves and honors and nurtures the welfare of the brother with whom he sleeps. Yet in this majority view, God is like the loving father who sorrows over the son who is out sowing wild oats, yet who always welcomes him

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